


A lovely shade of blue

by thebasisofoptimism



Series: A tale of love and glory [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Jotunn Loki (Marvel), M/M, Self-Esteem Issues, Self-Hatred
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-31
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-19 22:37:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17610344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thebasisofoptimism/pseuds/thebasisofoptimism
Summary: “Okay. Okay. What has been your biggest magic mishap?”Loki opens his mouth. Then closes it.He thinks: Father’s gravely ill. With Thor exiled on Midgard, it’s me who will see to the matters of the throne.“Once I decided that a boar would make a fine mascot and I magically whisked it into my chambers, in palace”.





	A lovely shade of blue

“Once, I think it was in our junior year. What I described my father as ‘some studying’ with Rhodey ended up with one apartment trashed, two ambulances, three of our classmates in custody and an university official ban against red spray body paint”.

Loki cannot shake the tight knot of worry that his stomach has turned into, not even after a long, satisfying night of sex. It’s because of that that he doesn’t register Tony’s silence up until the man who has been his lover for the past months snorts and throws him a thoroughly amused look.

“I thought it'd take me a little more than a stupid anecdote to leave you speechless”.

“Do you want to know what it can take to make me speechless?”, Loki counters as he turns to face him. “Is that your question?”

They have been trading questions for the better part of the night. It has started over a bottle of wine and evolved from there. Loki about Tony's youth, while the inventor fixes in Loki’s power and otherworldly knowledge. They try to avoid sore subjects but, sometimes, they strike pretty near home. That's what happens when Tony laughs and says: “Okay. Okay. What has been your biggest magic mishap?”

Loki opens his mouth. Then closes it.

_Father’s gravely ill. With Thor exiled on Midgard, it’s me who will see to the matters of the throne._

“Once I decided that a boar would make a fine mascot and I magically whisked it into my chambers, in palace”.

Tony looks at him attentively. Loki feel momentaneous tranquility, but at the same time it makes him miserable. _Pathetic, useless coward who cannot be straightforward_ —

“When the All-father discovered it, I told him that he was little more than a stuffed toy I had been gifted”, the god continues. “It took the destruction of half the wheat supply and an attack against the All-father’s crows for him to discover it”, he adds, because even if he feels as if Tony is about to call bullshit on his anecdote ( _now, the inventor's uncanny ability to see through his lies is another scary thought that has plagued him during some time_ ), he won’t be caught death telling a bad story.

He chooses his next question without hesitation and he almost regret it instantly: “When were you first kissed?”

The god had a clear path of when and how was he going to talk to Tony about— But now he doubts that he'll be able to even breach the subject.

“Oh, I was 17”.

The inventor smirks. He has a disgustingly attractive smirk. _Terribly distracting_.

“It was at prom”, adds Tony. “With the girl I had been meaning to ask out for months, but never had the courage to. My actual date found out about it, which was not good for anyone involved”.

Tony starts drawing patterns on his side, slowly, lazily.

“If a genie offered you three wishes— as in, three things that you want and you magic or of thin air now, what would those be”.

Loki thinks about Tony. Then his mind wanders to his brother and, finally, to his mother and that dark place of his mind he doesn’t dare to look up close much often these days.

“Pizza”.

Tony snorts.

“It’s true, I never did have much patience for cooking spells”, Loki feels a tightness in his chest that he tries pretty hard to ignore. “Three slices of pizza of that fabulous tavern I crashed you in, last time Amora decided to try to destroy New York”.

It had been back at the time Loki (recently crashed on Earth with the rest of the Asgardian refugees) still worked as a cover operative for S.H.I.E.L.D., helping the every once in a while alien invasion just enough to fuck their plans up before they came into fruition. It had been a time full of very ominous speeches about vengeance and spite and full of mock battles in which the god centered everyone’s attention as some of the Avengers (those who remain Avengers) helped to evacuate civilians.

Then, one time, Tony almost died and Loki blew his cover in quite a grand manner. But that's not here nor now. 

“Excuse me, the tavern _you_ crashed me in?”

“I distinctly remember how you fell to the ground because you couldn’t get rid of the flock of ravens I had send after you—”.

“I only wanted you to get confident enough to let your guard down”.

“The great Iron Man, _beaten down by raven’s poop_ ”, the god mocks him, which promptly makes them descend into a pit of giggles.

Enjoying once again intimate gestures is what Loki cherises most about his relationship with Tony, but at the same time it's one of the things that make him more fearful. He feels as if he’s giving the other a knife and then letting his guard down.

“Why have you decided to—”, ‘become my lover’ feels out of place to describe a relationship he feels so unworthy of, “strike a dalliance with me?”

Tony’s hand stops. Loki feels as if he’s going to puck in any moment now.

“It puts your work at risk. It pits you against your comrades. It can destroy your public image”.

“Is that a serious question?”

“I shapeshift”. He doesn’t know quite well what point he’s trying to drive home. Ot if Tony's following him. He’s not sure why he has decided to speak at all, truth be told. There’s a tiny voice in his head which describes him in detail how disgusted the inventor is going to be with him when he understands what he’s trying to say, and he does only a moderate, mediocre job at trying to ignore it.

“It was a source of pride when I grew up, another proof of my talent with the _seidr_ : shapeshifting is rare among the Aesir, and there was certainly no one who could do it with as much ease as I did”, Tony nods, encouragingly. The god feels a tiny, little rush of relief and then his stomach sinks when he faces the humiliating fact that he’s talking about this for the first time in years and he has chosen a Midgardian to do so ( _a Midgardian, for the All-Father’s sake_ ); a Midgardian whose opinion he cares so much about that he’s mildly terrified at the thought of how he’s going to react.

Loki forces himself to continue.

“My ever changing appearance made the rounds of gossip in every fest, in spite of the anecdotes of Thor’s bruteness, always good candidates when it comes to outshine me”, he tries to make light of it. He breathes in, breathes out, lets the glamour down and watches as a wave of blue slowly covers his hands, goes up his arms and continues his

journey into his chest. He doesn’t look, but hears how Tony gasps.

“This power is much more common in— other realms”, he tries to explain. He wishes he could add more. He has the memory of that fateful ambush in Jotunheim stuck in his brain, but he doesn’t know how to translate into words how he felt when that jotun touched him and his arm turned as blue as his. Nor graving the Casket of Winter. Or facing his father and shouting angrily at him— _Telling him, viciously_ — “I come from a realm called Jotunheim. A cold, harsh terrain whose inhabitants are known for— I discovered it on accident, during an excursion”, he adds, probably unhelpfully.

After a moment, Tony grabs his hands. 

“Hey, it’s ok” he says. He intertwines their fingers and strokes Loki’s knuckles with his thumbs, as if he’s trying to sooth a skittish cat. The god stares at them intently. “You got me worried for a second. Thought you were going to confess to something important, like eating the last bag of oreos. I was prepared to throw a fit”.

“Jötnar are known to be vicious, bloodthirsty monsters”, blurts out Loki.

“Well, we both know that you’re not like that”.

Loki laughs. It doesn’t sound nice.

“Three, four years ago I would have agreed with that without blinking, But now? People can change. And you’re doing an active effort to do better, you know. Your past is not there to hinder you, but to make you learn from mistakes. Mistakes such us, by example, thinking that discovering that you’re blue is going to make me puke, or whatever, which I guess it’s what had you that worried”.

Loki’s glare loses force until it’s more of an unbelieving glance. He scoffs at Tony and rolls his eyes, but his heart is beating fast and he cannot keep the wide grin that soon breaks through his face. He breathes a long sigh of relief, and feels a weigh lifting from his shoulders. He loves so much that stupidly brilliant, fantastic Midgardian that he has had the lucky chance to encounter—

“Besides, you’ve got a lovely shade of blue, you beautiful smurf. Can I kiss you?”

**Author's Note:**

> This is going to be a collection of Frostiron drabbles without much care for order or canon compliance. 
> 
> Comments encouraged! Also, say hi to me here: https://thebasisofoptimism.tumblr.com/


End file.
